Southeast Asia forum

I came across this post in a thread about security when out of the room:

"Now there is something I found which is incredibly useful, it's a metal cup which you put over the door knob when you leave your room, you put a large padlock through a couple of holes at the base of the cup and the metal loop on the padlock prevents the cup from being taken off by anyone but you.

The upshot is that no one gets in your room but you, not the owner, no one, unless they've got a pair of bolt cutters or take the door off it's hinges. It cost about $8 in chaing mai and frankly it's the best piece of travel security gear I've ever seen or used, if you can find one I would highly recommend getting one."

Anyone know what this is exactly and how it works? I'm kinda interested and yet confused!

In the states if you're behind on your rent the landlords will use the same device to keep you out of your room until you pay up. It just fits over the whole doorknob with a lock on the bottom. Very simple. I have never used one and do not know how an owner of a guesthouse would react.

I never heard of the device/method but I know that in many guesthouses it wouldn't work.

I've locked myself several times out of my room, called the "locksmith" (it was my own house) and he opened the door without ever touching the doorknob. Just a playing card to push the pin back and the door was open.
Since then I check out of habit whether a door has a security strip (or not) which would make it harder to do the card trick. And my results are that not many guesthouses have such strips.

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